Known as The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, the 10,600-acre park opens Monday, when 30,000 scouts are expected to visit for the quadrennial National Jamboree. The Summit will have more than 5 miles of zip lines, a whitewater-rafting circuit, a 120-foot tree house and a stadium for 85,000 people.

We were pretty hard core as well. Our leaders were WWII and Korea vets. A Marine Sgt, a Navy fighter pilot, a corpsman, a GI who fought in Italy. The men of today remember the times as some of the best of their lives. We did 50 mile hikes in the Ouchita Mountains of SE Oklahoma. Walked the ridges from Clayton, Oklahoma to Mena, Arkansas. No water up on the ridges in the summer. Some springs that were mostly polluted by range cattle. We often had to walk 10 miles in the evening off the trail down to the valley to get water. We walked the ridges because the valleys were where the people are and the ridges are National Forest and some Weyerhauser property.

There were downpours, snakes, lots of blisters, broken packs, minor injuries. The strong helped the weak and we all got better for it.

We camped up at our little place on a mountain on weekends. It joined a big rancher who allowed us to use his mountain top fields. Intertwined with our advancement work we played capture the flag all weekend. Day and night. Each patrol would set up on the edge of a huge field scattered with pine trees. It was almost a mile across in any direction. Nobody ever got snake bit or sprayed by a skunk. It was amazing.

Our Philmont was the long trek, 115 miles or so. We paced a bunch from some big city in Texas the whole time and usually beat them to supply camps where we cleaned out the Hunt’s canned peaches that we chilled in the creeks. The last day we were ahead of them on Tooth of Time Ridge. They were trying to catch us and we could hear them all day. In the evening we climbed the rocks to watch the sunset, nobody wanted to leave, and watched them walk by while they wondered where we had gone. We hollered at them as they walked by, we let them win going into base camp and it was so sweet because they knew we let them win. We walked in after dark singing. We always got crapped out by staff for minor infractions and it happened again since we were hiking well after dark. We were a bunch of country boys and when we got home we went back to throwing hay and then two-a-day football practice.

The new rules were pretty strict; so much so that for Jamboree, they actually relaxed the rule, so that kids that were obese but not morbidly obese, could attend if they had approval from their physician. My son was working on getting down to the appropriate weight, when he decided going to Jamboree just wasn’t worth it.

Instead, he went with 3 scouts and two adults on a 10-day canoe trip through the backwater lakes of canada, and had a blast.

I just think it sold itself Was speaking w a friend, a long time scout dad, during the siege. He said it was the money. I asked him what could a hundred year old program need miney for.

A program for boys? The boys in my upper mid class ‘hood did everything they needed to. Noone drive rhem anywhere. They took over the best yards for whatever sport they played someone owned a bat. Another a football etc.

The boys in the scouts were NOT demanding money.

What could the money be necessary for? Something was way wrong

A wk after the gay sell out some big BSA real eastate was sold in phili. I know the boys dont care about real estate.

I hear you. I worked as an adult leader in Scouting for about the last 13 years. I have held positions of Cub Master and Assistant Scout Master, plus many other titles. I was active because I enjoyed it and my boys enjoyed it. Both of my boys earned their Eagle Scout rank, and last year was my last year of helping out, however I had planned on continuing with donating and such, but with this new embrace of homosexuality over “morally straight” and “reverent to God”, I will aid the Boy Scouts no longer.

This does hurt, because I know many very good adult leaders and scouts. I put a letter to the editor in stating my view on the BSA’s new position, and I got not one single call or email agreeing with me. Normally when I put a letter to the editor on things like morality, I used to get positive feed back from some of the adult Scout leaders, but not anymore, I guess. So sad that the National Council decided to ruin such a great organization with one fell swoop.

39
posted on 07/28/2013 6:04:26 PM PDT
by ScubieNuc
(When there is no justice in the laws, justice is left to the outlaws.)

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